Liv­ing in the Balto/D.C. metro area and look­ing for some­thing to do this week­end? Well then head down to D.C. this Sat­ur­day (19 Dec) for the fourth annual Hol­i­day Booty Mar­ket! Fea­tur­ing the work of twenty regional artists and crafters, the mar­ket is a great chance to find last-minute hol­i­day trea­sures for your loved ones all while brows­ing among the beau­ti­ful fur­ni­ture avail­able at Design Within Reach. A few of the ven­dors fea­tured Sat­ur­day include:

60 bugs

de*nada

Mary Ellen Doran

Gosh­darnknit

Red Prairie

Jaime Zol­lars

The event will be held in Wash­ing­ton D.C. from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Adams Mor­gan Design Within Reach show­room. Check­out the event Web site for more details.

Images: 60 bugs, De*Nada Design, Mary Ellen Doran, Gosh­darnknit, Red Prairie Press, Jaime Zol­lars

I have another con­fes­sion to make, Inter­net. I am ter­ri­ble at pick­ing out tables– I put it off as long as I can, I will buy a couch before pick­ing out a table, and even then it takes me six months to com­mit to a couch.

When I lived in Den­ver, I went months and months with­out a table, not even a desk! I had kitchen coun­ters and a side table, that was as flat as it got in my home.

But lo! I have found a table that I would gladly wel­come into my home; behold:

I swear my fas­ci­na­tion with this table has noth­ing to do with the year I spent liv­ing across from a ball bear­ing fac­tory. Ok, maybe just a lit­tle bit.

What’s your idea of the per­fect table? And are there any items of fur­ni­ture you find it dif­fi­cult to select?

Build­ing on an ear­lier theme of friends and for­mer class­mates, today I thought I’d share the fab­u­lous work of another buddy from my col­lege days at Carnegie Mel­lon. When I think about it, the CMU con­nec­tion theme could eas­ily become a fea­ture unto itself on Aman­daMuses, but we’ll just see, I guess…

Any­way, Josh Urso, another prod­uct of the Carnegie Mel­lon Design pro­gram, pro­duces stun­ning fur­ni­ture in his New Jer­sey stu­dio. Since the open­ing of his design stu­dio in 2002, Josh con­tin­ues to pro­duce items that explore the lim­i­ta­tions of mate­r­ial and struc­ture. His work, inspired by mechan­i­cal processes and new mate­ri­als, inspires curios­ity and a play­ful enjoy­ment of daily life.

I love his Ant Farm lights and Knoop tables, and of course the incred­i­ble Specter chair– I remem­ber Josh’s pro­to­type senior year in col­lege watch­ing the evo­lu­tion of this amaz­ing object come to life. He took limp cloth and made it live with resin and sheer inven­tive brilliance.

It has been many years since I have been in touch with Josh, but from the look of his Web site, he is doing splendidly.

Images: Josh Urso Design